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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28131111">till we cease will i remember</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunsxleil/pseuds/sunsxleil'>sunsxleil</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Merry Christmas, I Love You [14]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Carol (2015)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Anniversary, F/F, Fluff, Pillow &amp; Blanket Forts, soft times</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 14:23:55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,131</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28131111</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunsxleil/pseuds/sunsxleil</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It's their anniversary and Therese comes home to a surprise. It scares her at first but oh, Carol knows just how to welcome her back into her arms, back home.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Carol Aird/Therese Belivet</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Merry Christmas, I Love You [14]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035672</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>37</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>till we cease will i remember</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>No prompt today! This kind of just popped into my head and I thought hey, why not. It's soft and sweet. Hope you guys enjoy it!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Therese comes home that day, the lights are oddly off, despite it being 5 pm on a Friday which means Carol should have been home for hours by now.</p><p>“Carol?” Therese calls out, shrugging off her coat. She can’t help the fear growing in her chest, clawing at her veins. “Carol, are you here?” Therese hangs her coat just as she notices the orange glow in the bedroom.</p><p>“In here, darling!” Carol calls back, and Therese breathes out. The tension comes out of her like steam as Therese walks quickly to their bedroom—what could possibly be going on?</p><p>“Carol, what is this?” Therese says, then stops.</p><p>She stands at the doorway of their bedroom, looking down on the floor. Their floor, which… while they have a rug, the rug is now covered with blankets, and pillows litter a small area that Carol, it seems, has bordered with some chairs and covered in a thin white sheet. And it smells like candles and Carol’s perfume, and Carol is in her nightgown sitting with her legs crossed in the middle of it all.</p><p>Carol smiles up at her, almost like a child, proud of what she’s made yet with the sweetness and grace only Carol is capable of. “It’s not much, but I thought you’d like it.”</p><p>Should Therese change into her night clothes now? She smiles. “And if I don’t?” Dropping her bag on their spare table, she heads over to Carol. Carol pulls her down and kisses her, and Therese holds Carol’s face in her hands as she presses her lips harder against Carol’s. Some days, Therese just wants to close all gaps she has with Carol. All the time spent away from her, all the space between them when she couldn’t spend her hours cuddling Carol or having Carol cuddle her. Today is one of those days.</p><p>“If you don’t, sweetheart,” and Therese is sitting on Carol’s lap now, Carol lying on the sheets with her golden hair splayed all around her head, like a halo. Angel, oh, dearest angel. “I have other things in mind you might like.” Carol winks, and Therese feels the rush in her chest. Carol looks beautiful in the candlelight. Ravishing, yes, under Therese like this, but also just…</p><p>Carol’s smirk turns into a thoughtful smile. “What?”</p><p>Therese bends down and kisses Carol’s forehead, her nose, her lips. <em>My angel</em>. “Stay like that.” Therese leaves Carol and her knowing smile, and exits their small castle to rummage through her bag.</p><p>When Therese comes back, her camera is in her hand. She returns to her position on Carol’s lap, peering this time into her camera. Back when they had first met, Carol always needed warming up before Therese could take a picture of her, and the few times Therese got to take pictures unbidden, they were mostly the times when Carol did not notice at all Therese taking a picture. Now, though, Carol simply stays still. Her eyes though, are gray storms. Therese thinks that for every picture she develops, Carol’s eyes say different things, though always leading to the same conclusion.</p><p>
  <em>I am yours. I love you.</em>
</p><p>Therese loves photography, but she loves her pictures of Carol the most.</p><p>Slowly, Carol lowers a hand from beside her head. When Therese does not argue, Carol brings the other one down as well—onto Therese’s thighs, pulling her closer. “Where did you get the idea to make a fort?” Therese asks.</p><p>Therese snaps another picture, and Carol shifts to expose her neck. “Oh, well, today is a special day after all.” Carol gives her that smile, with equal parts mischief and vulnerability, and Therese takes a deep breath. “How could I ever forget the first time I laid my eyes on you?”</p><p>Therese sets her camera aside, and Carol helps her ease onto the blankets. Therese lies beside Carol, only inches separating their eyes from each other. Carol kisses Therese, pushes Therese’s hair away from her face and behind her ear. “I didn’t think you’d be so sentimental.”</p><p>“Oh!” And Carol rolls her eyes, making Therese laugh. Therese pulls Carol closer by the waist, and all she can do is stare at this woman in the candlelight and think— “Have I told you how I kept looking at the calendar to know when my gloves and the train set might arrive?”</p><p>—<em>All the people in the world and all the stars in the universe and somehow, I found my way to you.</em></p><p>“You sound like you were very worried about your gloves.”</p><p>“I was.” Carol says, and Carol scoots closer to her, letting their foreheads and noses touch. Carol likes doing that, and Therese has come to like it very much too. “Perhaps more worried that the pretty girl behind the counter wouldn’t care too much to send them back.”</p><p>“She’d have sent you the train set for free, if you asked.” Therese says. Carol laughs, and it’s warm against Therese’s lips. Therese likes the feeling of Carol's breath on her lips. “I’d know. I asked her.”</p><p>“You did, did you?” Carol’s eyes are bright. Therese inches closer, so that her whole body is pressed against Carol, so that there is barely any space between her and Carol, so that all that’s left is the space between their faces, which Therese prefers so she can gaze into Carol’s eyes that peer into hers as if she is the only person, only thing in the <em>world</em> worth seeing. “Can you ask her how she likes her anniversary present?”</p><p>“Hm.” Therese hums, and she pecks Carol’s lips once, twice. Her eyes droop, and she feels Carol’s arms and her own starting to roam. She has memorized her lover’s body by now, but every exploration still feels like the first. “Ask me if I liked it.”</p><p>“Did you?”</p><p>“Yes.” Therese kisses Carol, deeply, and when she pulls away, Carol nips at her bottom lip. She opens her eyes, and it all almost looks like a dream—the dim, golden lighting, the white cloth around them, the pillows, the blankets, the sheets—and the angel looking up at her like the defining line between living life and surviving it. “I’m so glad I met you, Carol.”</p><p>Carol smiles, and that’s how Therese knows it’s not a dream: because not even the Carol in her dreams can smile like that, the way Carol smiles at her when Carol’s whole heart is open bare, Therese free to hold it, kiss it, crush it in her hand if only she wished. And Carol knows Therese will take care of it, while Therese knows she wouldn’t do it any other way. “I’m glad I met you too,” and they’re still, for a while, as Carol breathes out,</p><p>“My angel, flung out of space.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>All mistakes are mine, and I don't own the characters—Patricia Highsmith does. Hope you guys enjoyed this little idea inspired by a tweet/Facebook post about Ikea posting instructions on making forts and stuff. Happy Carolmas!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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